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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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HoUlnger Corp. 



A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE PAST SIXTY YEARS 

For the Reflection of the American People and their 
Representatives in Congress, 



Wnii TIIK 



LETTER OF GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON 

JDi-. Coleman, Api-il ?iO, 1^^24, 

ATTACHED. 



The reLator lias had near .'3ixty years' business experience, and gone through 
the three great financial revolutions of the country which happened between 
the years 1835 and 1860, and claims to know something of their causes, 
which he fully believes were attributable to vacillating and compromising leg- 
islation in a great measure, and want of firmness of legislators. 

At an early day, by a law of Congress, the representatives of the Amer- 
ican people established a mint, for the purpose of coining gold and silver; 
which being done, various coins were made of different denominations and 
fineness, and fixed the value of each coin, both by weight and value, by posi- 
tive law, and made it a superior article, and called it money, for a circu- 
lating medium, and a measure of value and medium of exchange for all 
labor, and the products of labor and property, and made it a legal tender in 
the payment of all debts. It then ceased to be merchandise, but the suj)e- 
rior of all labor, production, merchandise, and property, and that to which 
the energies of man are directed to secure, as being their best and truest 
friend ; but, unfortunately, for the corruption and dishonesty of the present 
limes, failed to enact a negative law to make it a criminal offence, punishable 
by fine and imprisonment, for the violation of the law of Congress. They 
also established a National Bank, which went into operation iu 1791, char- 
tered by Congress for twenty years, which Avas authorized to issue a paper 
currency, redeemable in specie and in payment of debts. These currencies 
were very uniform throughout the whole country, and of great value and 
convenience to trade and commerce, which was then principally foreign, 
having no regular manufacturing industry except what little was done on 
the farm. This state of things continued for about twenty years, when, in 
1811, the Congress refused to recharter the bank, because it was considered 
an old Federal measure, and its business was closed up. The European 
wars had given us a market for our surplus products of agriculture during 
that period, and the shipping interest was done and principally attended tu 

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by the New England Stnte^. The war with England in 1S12 changed the 
scene, and piracy drove our merchantmen from the seas, and the business 
of these States was completely suspended — the country in a deplorable con- 
dition far the want of supplies of clothing, blankets, and war material for 
the use of our armies. This gallant and ingenious people, having a cold, 
barren, rocky soil, unfitted for agricultural pursuits, turned their attention, 
energies, and water-power to manufacturing, and soon made cloths, blankets, 
cotton goods, and the varioi;s necessaries, and the army was supplied, and 
the country, to some extent, redeemed. The wars over and peace restored, 
found the country largely iu debt, and without means. Something had to 
be done. The State banks which had come into existence, both chartered 
and unchartered, soon fell into disrepute, and suspended, and many of them 
failed, and the business of the country into confusion. Foreign agettts and 
manufacturers, with their skilled labor, cheap money and cheap labof, soon 
flooded our seaports with their products, which soon had the effect of/break- 
ing down our infant manufactories, when hundreds and thousands of skilled 
men and women were soon out of employment, and foreign manufacturers 
and their agents soon had the market to themselves. The relator was, in 
1S13, '14, '15, and '16, a clerk in a retail store iu the country towns, when 
the foreigners had the market at their own prices, which ranged very high, 
as follows : Rio coffee, fifty cents per pound ; teas, from two to five dollars 
per pound ; brown sugar, twenty-five to thirty cents per pound ; ground 
alum and Liverpool salt, six dollai's per bushel ; prints, then called calico, 
from fifty cents to one dollar per yard ; India muslin, a coarse, brown ar- 
ticle, thirty-three to thirty-seven cents per yard; bleached mus!in for shirt- 
ing, from sixty-two to eighty-seven cents per yard ; cloth, from ten to 
twenty dollars per yard ; cassimeres, from three to seven dollars per yard; 
cassinetts, from two to four-aud-a-half dollars per yard, and not a fine article 
ut that ; hardware and queensware, hats and shoes, all at equally high 
prices. Agricultural products, having neither a home nor foreign market, to 
any considerable extent, ruled at very low prices, as follows ; wheat, fifty 
cents per bushel, in 1814; rye and corn, thirty cents per bushel; oats, fif- 
teen cents per bushel ; potatoes, twenty to twenty-five cents per bushel ; 
eggs, six cents per dozen ; butter, six to eight cents per pound ; and vege- 
tables, DO market for at any price, except at the cities, and they, then very 
small, required but little to supply them. 

After struggling with the war debt and depression of business, the Con- 
gress, the representatives of the American people, met in December, 1815, 
and, before adjournment, chartered a National Bank, with a capital of thirty- 
five millions, for twenty years, and adopted the American system, and gave 
to the country the first tariff looking to the protection of American labor, 
and a lav/ for the development of the country by internal improvements. 
These beneficent laws were styled the American system, and the building 
of the great national road commenced by the General Government. 

But to neutralize the tariff" act, the foreign agents and merchants, to keep 
the market, dropped their pricf.'s. Then the act not proving sufficient to 
influence capital to enibark in manufacturing, very little was effected. In 
1S20, Congress increased the duties on foreign im[)orts ; following the same 
rule, they again reduced tlie'se prices; so that, until the tariff" act of 1824. 
which still further increased the duties, was enacted, but little was done in pro- 
duction. Then rolling-mills, nail factoi-ies, cotton-mills, furnaces and foun- 



rlries, ■woollen-mills, and various manuf'actiiriii_!^ f\stablishmcnts sprang into 
being, and the country began to revive, and all labor found ready employ- 
ment at full wages ; revenue came into the Treasury, and the debt way 
being paid. Seeing the great advantage.-* produced by this American sys- 
tem, in 1828, just forty years ai2;o this session of Congress, they gave us 
the great tariff act of that session, (God grant that the present session may 
follow their example,) when the whole country sprang into life, with indus- 
try, prosperity, and thrift on every hand ; revenue increased, and flowed 
into the Treasury ; the people became wealthy, and in about six years paid 
off the whole of the national debt, and had a surplus in the Treasury of 
forty-two millions of dollars of good, sound money, and the country in the 
highest state of prosperity. Not knowing what to do with the surplus of 
forty-two millions, it was divided amongst the States, and the national road 
was completed through the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
and Ohio, and entered Indiana and nearly through the State. But, in an 
evil hour, jealousy, that great evil-eyed monster, crept into our great policy, 
and the American system was destroyed. The Northern States, owing to 
their free system and great diversity of labor, created and ditTused wealth, 
and drew the principal part of emigration, and were being developed very 
rapidly and permanently, when, in the Southern States, nullification reared 
its hydra head, and instead of following the example of the Northern States 
and extending the system of a division of labor amongst themselves, which 
they had every right to do, nullified the laws of Congress which they them- 
selves aided in enacting in 1832, and the wliole system was destroyed by 
the veto, and was done for want of firmness in the legislation of that ses- 
sion of Congress. From that time until 1860 the country passed through 
various ordeals — three great revulsions, which took placij in 1837, 1839, 
1840, '41, '42, and again in 1857, all of which was occasioned by the false 
system of a revenue tariff and the free-trade idea. During these twenty- 
eight years, the laboring and producing classes were putting no profits into 
their pockets, and many failed and were impoverished. The profits went 
into the pockets of the non-producer — the broker-shops, bankers, com- 
mission mei'chants, freighters, and money-shavers — the prices of products 
being generally too low to pay anything to the producer; while the slave 
States, having the control of the whole Government, and both a foreign and 
domestic market for their great staple, were extending their system over 
free soil and growing stronger every year, and when they thought they had 
acquired strength to do so, rebelled against tli(; (lovernment which they 
controlled themselves. Had they profited by the experience of the North- 
ern States and established manufactures, and became independent of foreign 
powers for supplies, they never would have rebelled ; and should they have 
done so, would have stood a much better chance of success. Thank God 
the rebellion is over, and this great nation is free ! Let the erring sisters 
now return in peace to the embrace of their magnanimous and forgiving 
sisters, and let us have peace. 

The great question now to settle is to establish a sound curre'ncy and 
pay our debts. How is this to be done? It can only be done by product- 
ive labor, and with economy, and with honest and faithful industry in all 
branches of the Government, Productive labor must be protected, as in 
1828, (just forty years ago ; we have had that experience,) from foreign 
competition, and ])aying our money to our own laborers instead of sending 



it to Euroj)e to pay for labor there, and letting our own labor go idlo. A 
tariff act equal to that of 1828 will raise more revenue than our present 
tariff, and will protect labor and give employment to all who are willing tr) 
work, and will bring skilled labor from Europe, who will learn our people 
tiie many trades we have yet to learn, and will, in a few years, become the 
greatest producing country in the world — having the raw material in greater 
abundance, and only waiting for development, and will enable our people 
to pay their taxes with greater ease. 

The bonded debt is well provided for ; the holders are jjaid interest in gold 
promptly. The bonds are not due and payable for from sixteen to thirty- 
tive years, and the country is generally satisfied with them, and the credit 
of the Government is in a fair way of being improved. Demagogues, how- 
ever, try to create alarm to make political capital, with the hope of changing 
the administration. Should they succeed, the whole business would be 
infinitely worse when in the hands of the unscrupulous. I trust the holders 
will give them no attention, and will stop sending them to Europe and 
trading them off for merchandise, which very soon goes into the scrap pile 
and rag hag, and you have nothing for them. Hold on to them ; you get 
the interest in gold ; the principal will be paid to your satisfaction when 
it is due, and all the necessaries you require you can get from our own manu- 
facturers and merchants for yoiir butter, eggs, vegetables, &c., &c., none of 
which the foreign manufacturer or merchant will or can take from you.' 

The currency question is just as easily arranged : all it want.s is back- 
bone in our legislation, and not suffer the non -producers to control it. 

Our great country abounds with all kinds of minerals — lead, copper, zinc, 
iron, tin, gold, and silver, etc., and a great variety of agricultural products 
for manufacturing pui'poses ; and when brought into market by the force of 
labor, are all a mercantile article, ready for exchange for other products 
of manufacturers, but very inconvenient, as a general rule. To remedy the 
evil, Congress, having authorized the coinage of money into various denom- 
inations, fixing their standard weight and value by positive law, as'a measure 
of value and medium of exchange for all labor and the products of labor, 
and all property, gold and silver thus coined becomes a superior article, and 
is called money, and governs all exchanges, and is no longer merchandise, 
to be bought and sold as properly. Various causes, the late rebellion more 
particularly, made it necessary for Congress, the representatives of the Amer- 
ican people, to authorize the Government, by positive law, to coin or issue 
paper money, as being more convenient for the general purposes of busi- 
ness, both for the Government and people ; and in their great wisdom, 
seeing there was not money sufficient to be had to furnish the necessary sup- 
plies to resist the great rebellion and save the Union, authorized the issue 
of four hundred millions of dollars, in notes of different denominations, and 
made them a legal tender and money value in payment of all debts and the 
purchase of property, same as coined gold and silver, except for duties on 
the imports of foreign . merchandise, which was held as a restraint against 
excessive importations, which they had a legal and constitutional right 
to do. Now this Congress, the representatives of the American people, 
who have been sustained in all they have done for the past eight 
years to save the Constitution and the Union, should take no step 
backward, but go forward, and 'save the labor and productive interest 
of the wliole Union from the rapacity of gold gamblers, speculators, and 



foreiga agents of both mercliants and manufacturers and non-producerf, 
by enacting the proposed tariff laws, and laws making it a criminal offence 
for violating any of the laws of Congress fixing the value of gold and silver, 
and the notes issued as money for a measure of value and medium of ex- 
change for labor and property, and not permit the disturbance of these 
values. If Congress, before adjournment, make the violation of these laws 
a penal offence, punishable by fines and imprisonment in the penitentiary 
for five years at labor, resumption can begin on the 1st of July. The frac- 
tional currency can be redeemed and taken out of circulation, with silver coin 
of 10, 25, and 50-cent pieces. The law protecting it fiom gold gamblers, it 
will remain in circulation for all business purposes, and cannot be sold. On 
the 1st of January, 1870, the one and two dollar notes can be redeemed and 
taken out of circulation with silver and gold ; with the law protecting the 
coin from sales, the banks can be ready to resume specie payments. The 
paper currency of the banks and the legal-tender notes of the Government 
being such a uniform currency, and so much more convenient for all busi- 
ness purposes, little coin will be required, except for the necessary change 
below the five-dollar notes. 

The legal-tender notes of the Government being recognized as money 
and currency, and equal in value by positive law, are required for circula- 
tion ; are not required by the people to be taken up only as they become 
mutilated and defaced, and should be redeemed with new notes and destroyed. 

The Government legal-tender notes, for the interest of labor and the de- 
velopment of the country, should be kept in circulation equal to the four 
hundred millions of dollars issued ; when coin comes into circulation, and 
it be found to increase rapidly, and the general circulation of the different 
currencies exceed twenty-eight dollars per capita of the whole population, 
then the Government notes can be withdrawn to the extent of keeping the 
circulation below thirty dollars per capita, and redeemed in coin. 

The Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency 
should be authorized and required to see to it that a sufficient currency was 
in circulation to do the general business of the country for cash payments, 
which would require from twenty-five to thirty dollars per capita. The 
country would then avoid those great financial revulsions we have suffered 
in the past ; sheriff and constable, sales and sacrifice of property, would be 
unknown ; money Avould become abundant for all useful purposes; interest 
on money would soon be as cheap as in Europe, and the Government could 
borrow money at 3 or 4 per cent., and could take up the 5 or G per cent, 
bonds, and save a large amount of taxation. With the protective principle 
incorporated in our tariff laws, the sound currency, and plenty of it, our 
population would largely increase from the skilled labor from Europe ; our 
people would soon learn all the trades, and this great American nation, hav- 
ing in every section the same interest, would soon become the great pro- 
ducing nation of the world, and for our agricultural products the very best 
market, on our own soil ; the created weahh would remain amongst our own 
people; labor would be fully rewarded ; the most thrifty and economical 
would soon gain wealth and become producers, and poverty would be un- 
known in our land. 

To make the record more complete : After the great revolution of 1S37, 
the effect was so great that a complete and full change took place in par- 
ties, and on the 14th of March, 1841, a new administration came into power, 



6 

identified with the American sy stent; and the tir.st ges,-<ioii of Congres.s the 
tariff' act of 1842 became a law, and the f'as^orite system of donating public 
lands to companies for public improvements became the rule; in a myste- 
rious way the President elect dietl suddenly ; through the faithlessness of 
the Vice President, who became the acting President, the opposition to a 
bank could not be overcome ; what was done, however, gave great joy and 
hope to the people, and business revived with promise, yet, through the 
influence of the accidental President, and the union of the 8outh, and the 
division of parties in the North,, the administration of the Government was 
again changed, and on the 4th, of March, 1845, an administration opposed 
to the American system came into power, and the tariff" act of 1846 became 
the law of the land, and the worst the country ever had, being too low to 
protect, but sufficient, wiili tb,e .ingenuity of the Yankee invention of ma- 
chinery to save labor, to keep the businet^s moving, and a fair market for 
agricultural products, yet business. so unprofitable that direct sales could not 
be made, and was done principally through commission houc/.^s, so that in- 
terest upon money running up to 1, 2, and 3 per cent, per month, broker- 
shops, commission houses, and the freighters got all the proiits, the laborer 
a scanty living, aud the producers nothing, many of the manufacturers and 
merchants failing, when the great crisis of 1857 took place, the most de- 
structive revolution the country ever had, and bankruptcy followed, which 
is not yet setth d up. These, with other encroachments of the dominant 
party in power, brought on theichange of the administration of the Gov- 
ernment on the 4tli of March, ISfil. What folio ued will never be forgot- 
ten. The linger of God can now be plainly seen in all that has transpired 
in the past eight years, and the, country is now free. It is now for the wis- 
dom of the Government to profit by the past, and to sustain the labor and 
productive industry of the country, the source of all wealth, and to give 
confidence to the currency which has been established by law, so that non- 
producers cannot control and depreciate any part of it; and to look to it 
that honesty and faithfulness to the interest of the people in every depart- 
ment of the Government be attended to, as they have to pay for all. 

Here you have a brief history of the past. Now for the future. It is uni 
versally conceded that what has been done can be done again, if the same prin- 
ciples and measures are enacled and carried out ; and it is now for you, the 
American people, the voters, the tax-payers, the laborers, the producers, the 
creators of all wealth, to look to it that your interests are subserved, and 
that your country, which all love so well, and have sacrificed so much to 
protect and pel petuate, shall not be controlled by foreign agents, merchants, 
and manufactureis, and the stock-jobbers, railroad monopolists, gold gam- 
blers, non-prod ucers, and Government robbers of our o wn country. Your whole 
country is now free — what the fathers intended it should be; and a new ad- 
ministration is coming into power by your wills on that principle, the chief 
head of which has your full couiidence for honesty, integrity, tried virtue; 
a christian man, who, in selecting the new officers to aid in its administra- 
tion, will secure men of honesty, integrity, tried virtue, of industrious busi- 
ness qualifications, noted for economy, aiul will feel an interest for the Gov- 
ernment and people, who, in selecting their subordinates, will look to it that 
each employee attend faithfully to time and duty, and that honesty and 
i'aithfulness to duty shall only be a jiassport U, promotion. The (rovern- 
ment will then, become respectable, and command the respect of all. 

T. McN's EXPEIUKNCK. 



In cvidfuce of the priuciplc and trutlit'iiluess of the above statement in 
favor oi' protecting Labor hehl by the fathers., reij,d the following letter: 

GENERAL ANDREW .JAUKS(>*N ix^) DR. COEEMAN. 

•WAsnh\(;To.\, April 26, 182 4. 

SiK : 1 have had the honor to receive your letter of the 21st in.stant, and 
with candor .*hall reply to it. My name has been brought before the nation 
by the peojjle themselves, without any age'ncy of mine ; for I wish it not to 
be forgotten that I have never solicited office, aior, when called upon by the 
constituted authorities, have ever declined 'when I conceived my services 
would be beneficial to my country. But as my name has been brought be- 
fore the nation for the first office in the gift of the people, it is incumbent on 
me, when asked, frankly to declare my opinion upon any political or national 
(juestion pending before and about which the country feels an interest. 

You ask me my opinion of the tariff. I answer, that I am in favor of a 
judicious examination and revision of it; and so far as the tariff before us 
embraces the design of fostering, preserving, and protecting within ouiselves 
the means of national defence and independence, particularly in a state of 
war, I would advocate and su]}poit it. The experience of the late war 
ought to teach us a lesson, and one never to be forgotten. If our liberty 
and republican form of Government, procured for us by our revolutionary 
fathers, are worth the blood and treasure at which they were obtained, it 
surely is our duty to protect and defend them. Can there be an American 
patriot who saw the privations, dangers, and difficulties experienced for the 
want of a proper means of defence during the last war, who would be will- 
ing again to hazard the safety of our country if embroiled, or rest it for de- 
fence on the precarious means of national resources to be derived from com- 
merce, in a state of war with a maritime power which might destroy that 
commerce to prevent our obtaining our means of defence, and thereby sub- 
due us ? I hope there is not, and if there is, I am sure he does not deserve 
to enjoy the blessing of freedom. 

Heaven smiled upon and gave us liberty and independence. That same 
Providence has blessed \\?> with the means of national independence and 
national defence. If we omit or refuse to use the gifts which he has ex- 
tended to us, we deserve not the continuation of his blessings. He has 
filled our mountains and our plains with minerals — with lead, iron, and cop- 
per — and given us a climate and soil for the growing of hemp and wool. 
These being the grand materials of our national defence, they ought to have 
extended to them adequate and fair protection, that our manufactorie.s and 
laborers may be placed on a fair competition with those of Europe, and that 
we may have wilhin our country a supply of those leading and important 
articles so essential to war. Beyond this, I look at the tariff with an eye 
to the proper distribution of labor and revenue, and with a view to discharge 
our national debt. 1 am one of those who do not believe that a national 
debt is a national blessing — but rather a curse to a republic, inasmuch as it 
is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dan- 
gerous to the liberties of the country. 

This tarifli' — I mean a judicious one — possesses more fanciful than real 
dangers. I will ask, what is the real situation of the agriculturist ; where 
has the American farmer a market for liis surplus products? Except for 



LIBRftRV OF CONGRESS 




coLloii, he has neither a foreign nor *home mar. ii,,,,,,,,,,,,, ^ 

prove there is too much labor employed in agr 011 802 25o o 
nels of labor should be multiplied '( Common sense points out at once the 
remedy- Draw from agriculture the superabundant labor, employ it in 
mechanism and manufactures, thereby creating a home market for your 
breadstuffs, and distributing labor to a most profitable account, and bene- 
fits to the country will result. Take from agriculture in the United States 
GOO, 000 men, women, and children, and you at once give a home market for 
more breadstuffs than all Europe now furnishes us. In short, sir, we have 
been too long subject to the policy of the British merchants and manufac- 
turers. It is time we should become a little more Americanized, and in- 
stead of feeding the paupers and laborers of Europe, feed our own, or else, 
in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall all be paupers 
ourselves. 

It is therefore my opinion that a careful tariff is much wanted to pay our 
national debt, and afford us the means of that defence within ourselves on 
which the safety and loyalty of our country depend ; and last, though not 
least, give a proper distribution to our labor, which must prove beneficial to 
the happiness, independence, and wealth of the community. 

This is a short outline of my opinions generally on the subject of your 
inquiry ; and believing them correct and calculated to further the prosperity 
and happiness of my country, I declare to you I would not barter them for 
any office or situation of a t mporal character that could be given me. 

I have presented you my opinions freely, because I am without conceal- 
ment, and should, indeed, despise myself if I could believe myself capable 
of acquiring the confidence of any by means so ignoble. 
I am, sir, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

ANDREW JACKSON. 



LIBRAI 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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